I was invited to speak at the following event yesterday by JohnstonWells. They’ve just moved into new offices in Denver so was a great way to show off the new digs. The event was well run and well attended by a number of local companies so hats off to the folks at JohnstonWells. The purpose of the seminar was to discuss how in a social media world brands are losing control of the message and what can or should be done about it.

There was a lot of discussion around authenticity and measuring results. Times are particularly crazy for the traditional PR house since a lot of what they have done in the past is changing rapidly from an offline world with well known pundits and analysts to the online world of the masses where the pundits shift like sand in the wind. Many companies are still afraid to allow their employees to publish blogs and the transparency that comes with it. it’s going too far to say authenticity is foreign, but it is scary. This is truly the point of the discussion. Social media is about engaging your customers where they live, where they participate, with whom they discuss. To enter into this community, this discussion, with the mantle of PR and legal loofa sponge cleaned copy is an invitation to alienation, or worse, flaming. The communication must be authentic, in that it must come off as honest and concerned. If the product has a flaw, admit to this, if there is a problem, fess up and tell people how you are going to fix it.

This is why we got into the discussion that customer service is the new marketing. It is because this is where the conversation is occurring. Scrub marketing down to the bare metal and where the discussion meets the consumer is the conversation around how well the product meets their needs. This is customer service and where the battle for the hearts and minds of the consumers will be won in social media. Someone (Efrem I believe) brought up the story about Timbuktu packs. He had a clasp break off from a 5 year old pack. Not completely gruntled, he contacted customer service. They were able to get him a replacement clasp to fix his pack. Even though it was at cost he was very pleased that they responded so quickly and solved his problem. He wrote it up in his blog. Marketing.

So how do companies manage their brand in this brave new online world?

• Monitor the conversation. Where is it occurring? Who are the key players? Are they positive or negative?
• Provide prompt feedback to customers, offer solutions.
• Engage in the conversation. Use this as an opportunity to gather customer feedback. Listen and respond. Be honest with people when you aren’t able to solve their problem.
• Be as transparent as you can. And communicate with integrity. Say what you mean.